Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Basics of pH and Human Body

Most of us haven't given pH another thought since our high school chemistry class. It seemed to be a complex idea which didn't really have a lot of basis in our lives.

However, if you stop to think about how you live on a daily basis, you can actually see examples of pH and how it helps you (or hurts you) in your life. For example, when you have too much acid in your stomach, this means the pH is very low. To help make your stomach feel better, you need to add something that's the opposite of acidic – also called something that is basic. This base will then help to bring the pH number up to a more neutral measurement, which leaves you feel better.

The pH system is a system in which one can measure the acidity or the basicity of a substance. But for the pH miracle diet, we can substitute alkalinity in for basicity. The more acidic an item is, the lower the pH value on a system of 0 to 14. Those numbers which are closer to the 14 are going to be less acidic and have more alkaline properties.

Make sense so far?

When something is neutral in terms of acidity or alkalinity, it's around 7 pH. Of course, this is the ideal measurement for neutrality and it is difficult to attain.

Human Body pH - Our Bodies Crave Balance

Pure water will have a pH reading of about 7 pH. And that's what 75% of our bodies are made up of, so that's something that's quite important to the way our bodies function. If our pH is off, that can actually begin to cause troubles in the body. Water is in every part of our bodies, so when that is not at the proper pH level, it can start making basic functions in the body more complicated and difficult.

It might become more difficult for the body to turn food into energy and into nutrients for various organs to use. And when this happens, you aren't getting the nutrition you really need. If your body doesn't get the nutrition it needs, you might begin to crave foods which can help you to fill in the gaps in this nutrition – or you might just begin to grab any food available in order to help with your nutritional stores.

But what you might not realize is that the body isn't quite so simple. In truth, each of the different parts of the body requires a different pH level in order to be healthy. And it's no wonder that many of us have troubles getting to the pH level we need.

Blood, for example, has a pH of about 7.4. This is slightly basic, which means that in order for our blood to be 'happy' and ready to transport nutrients to our organs, it needs to have less acid in it. But the current modern diet doesn't fall in sync with this measurement.

Human Body pH - The Candida Problem

The next trick when it comes to slightly more acidic blood is that things can begin to develop which should be prevented by a 'normal' and healthy diet. Candida, for example, is a fungus which develops when the body begins to have acid waste in the blood stream.

When the body begins to have too much acid, it wants to get rid of it and restore balance. But this excess acid needs to go somewhere. So, it ends up in the blood stream. And if you have an excessive amount of acid, your body is going to have a difficult time of filtering this waste out and creating harmony in your body's chemistry again.

Many scientists are now considering the idea that this buildup of acid in the body may be responsible for the aging process. The body can not function the way it did when it was younger due to the acid waste buildup, thus the body begins to slow down and processes which kept you youthful are now interrupted or stopped completely.

When Candida develops in the body, it begins to effectively poison you and to make your body's systems even less well-functioning. While it's not the fungus itself that is causing the illnesses you might experience or the symptoms you might have, the presence of Candida shows that your body is out of balance. And that's a problem that the society is only perpetuating, it seems.

Human Body pH - The Modern Acidic Times

In fact, our diets today are far more acidic than they should be – for our health and for our weight. For example, drinking soda means you are drinking in acids like phosphoric acid. As a result, you are going to have troubles maintaining the proper pH value in your bloodstream, especially if you drink a lot of soda or other acidic drinks (even orange juice is acidic).

When your body has significant swings in the pH of its tissues and fluids, then even more dramatic things can happen – illness, disease, and even death.

Just as you wouldn't put water into your gas tank, you can't put a lot of acidic or basic foods into your body without expecting something to go wrong. And the more often your body is exposed to too much of one pH, the more troubles you can have.

So, it's easy to see that pH is an important factor to consider when creating a diet. If you're not balancing the acidic foods with alkaline foods, you might have troubles getting nutrition in your body and thus this can lead to weight gain. It's only natural to have cravings for foods when your body isn't getting what it needs. But when your pH is in balance, it can be easier to fight off these cravings and finally begin to gain control of your diet.

Maybe your chemistry class was more useful than it seemed to be at the time.